


Some Things Are Worth the Trouble

by GremlinSR



Series: A Holmes in Konoha [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU - Hogwarts Fusion, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Fluff, Hufflepuff!Mayu, Idiots in Love, Ino and Chouji are good bros, Mayu is Crazy, Potions, Shikamaru is in denial, Slytherin!Shikamaru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-19 01:43:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15499530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GremlinSR/pseuds/GremlinSR
Summary: Shikamaru has a new potions partner. She's not quite what he expected.





	Some Things Are Worth the Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Look, a Shikamaru and Mayu Hogwarts AU, because I don't write enough ridiculous things. :D

“Wake up _,_ Shikamaru, Professor Uchiha will use your entrails for his next potion if you’re late to the first day of class!”

Shikamaru heaved a great sigh into the wood of the table and wondered, not for the first time, why he couldn’t have been born a squib like his family’s gardener, Tomin. The man spent all his time hanging around the grounds and communing with nature. Also, Shikamaru had seen him laying out on the grass, napping, multiple times from his bedroom window.

As a wizard people expected him to go to class and be ambitious and take the wizarding world by storm and it was just so, so troublesome. Ino poked him in the side when he didn’t respond and he didn’t even twitch. He was used to her abuse by now.

“Shikamaru, man, come on,” Chouji’s gentle voice cajoled from his other side. “You know how much work Professor Uchiha’s detentions are.”

With a groan, Shikamaru peeled his forehead from the table. The great hall _was_ looking a little empty. “Fine, fine.”

Ino huffed and flipped her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder before standing. _“Finally._ Honestly, I don’t know why daddy insists that I be friends with you. It’s obvious you’re too lazy to take over the Nara portion of the business, anyway.”

Shikamaru tuned her out as he lifted his feet over the bench and grabbed his bag from where he’d unceremoniously dropped it on the ground. He didn’t protest when she reached forward and adjusted his tie before moving on to Chouji. She insisted that if she was going to be seen with them, they couldn’t look like ‘unapologetic slobs.’

Chouji took it with his usual amused grace, only wincing a little when she pulled the green material just a little too tight against his throat. Shikamaru slouched and shuffled after them, already dreading the first Potions lesson of the year. Professor Uchiha was the only professor who was able to terrify Shikamaru into submission, which basically meant he stayed awake and actually did his work.

“...and we’re paired with Hufflepuff this year, can you believe it?” He turned his attention back to Ino just long enough to catch the last thing she said.

“Huh. The last time we were paired with Hufflepuff for a class was, what, second year? Care of Magical Creatures?” Shikamaru asked.

“Yep. They’ll probably cry when we have to start using live stuff in the potions,” Ino said derisively and Shikamaru snorted while they both ignored Chouji’s slightly-censuring look. For a Slytherin, he was pretty soft-hearted. Actually, it was shocking to just about everybody that the Akimichis kept getting sorted into the same house as the Naras and Yamanakas.

Shikamaru supposed that it said a lot about how much personal preference went into the sorting hat’s decisions. Ino-Shika-Cho had been teaming up since Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin were dealing with their unresolved sexual tension by creating feuds across all of British Wizardkind. The famous trio had created a joint business venture that made the three families incredibly, stupidly rich. So maybe it wasn’t so unbelievable that they were all Slytherins at heart.

“The year hasn’t really begun until Professor Uchiha has made at least one Hufflepuff cry,” Shikamaru drawled.

He was sort of infamous for it, really. Though according to reports he always seemed genuinely baffled when one of the yellow-clad students burst into tears after they were subjected to one of his dry, stern lectures that were always _about_ potions, but somehow made you feel like he was really talking about your intellect, skills, and overall worth as a human being.

It’s possible Shikamaru had shed a tear or two in the privacy of his bed after the dour man had caught him sleeping in his class for the first and only time. He still had nightmares about that dressing down. Not that he’d ever admit it out loud to anyone, ever.

They entered the classroom with a minute to spare, ignoring Fugaku’s narrow-eyed look with the ease of long practice. “Yamanaka, you’re with Uzumaki,” he said and Ino barely stifled her cry of dismay before stomping over to the blonde Hufflepuff who was grinning and waving at her.

“Akimichi, you’re with Hyuuga. Nara - your partner hasn’t arrived yet. You may sit at an empty desk until she arrives.”

Shikamaru’s eyes roved the room, but he was only passingly familiar with the Hufflepuffs of his year and so couldn’t place who was missing. He tipped his chin at Chouji, who was seated next to a pretty dark-haired girl - memorable as Hinata Hyuuga simply because her father was the Minister of Magic. He knew of Naruto because he was the captain of Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team and dating the captain of the Slytherin team. Who also happened to be Professor Uchiha’s youngest son.

He slid into a stool in the desk behind Naruto and Ino, listening as he chattered on to her about his toad, Gamakichi. Ino’s expression was darkening with every additional word that left his mouth and Shikamaru idly wondered if their house was about to lose points after she inevitably lost it and started screaming. He was just glad the explosion wouldn’t be aimed at him for once.

Professor Uchiha glanced at the door as Shikamaru lifted the strap of his bag over his head. His brow twitched and Shikamaru wondered what had him looking so annoyed. Then he stopped thinking about it in favor of slumping over and attempting to achieve sleep with his eyes still open.

He jerked so hard that he almost fell off the stool when the door slammed open thirty seconds later. His arms flailed and his eyes widened before he caught his balance. He ignored the snickers around him in favor of glaring at the person who had just burst into the room and ruined the fugue-state he’d been falling into.

“Professor!” A girl with dark hair and pale skin beamed up at Fugaku Uchiha, whose lips were turned down in a moue of disapproval. Her yellow tie was askew, her robes were falling off one shoulder, and there were papers sticking out of her bag.

She bounced up on her toes, body practically vibrating with excitement. “How was your summer? You never wrote me back! I thought maybe you were -”

“Nomaka. You’re cutting it close.”

Her eyes widened and she clasped her hands together in front of her. “Sorry, Professor. I just - there was a nest of Vianese Gnomes in the courtyard, and they -”

She cut off when he slashed his hand through the air to silence her, but instead of looking teary-eyed and terrified, she resembled a puppy waiting for treats. Shikamaru wondered if he was about to see his first murder. Around him, his fellow Slytherins were looking as disconcerted as he felt. He noted with some interest, however, that the Hufflepuffs of the class seemed almost bored by the display.

“Mayu. Your assigned partner is Shikamaru Nara. Please take your seat so that we may begin, and in the future, attempt to be on time.”

Shikamaru blinked rapidly when her head whipped to the side and her gaze zeroed in on him. “Professor. You _do_ love me.”

There were a few laughs from Hufflepuffs and Slytherins alike, and Professor Uchiha breathed in deeply through his nose. “Mayu, sit down.” _Wait, how come she got to be called by her first name?_

As she skipped over to the table and slid in next to him, late and unaffected by Fugaku’s resulting lecture, he wondered what in the hell was going on. Professor Uchiha hadn’t even taken any points from her. Mayu turned towards him and for some reason, his cheeks heated when her wide, grey eyes focused on him.

“Hi,” she said.

“Uh. Hey.”

“I’m Mayu Nomaka. Your family are all potions masters, right?” He leaned back as she pressed closer to him. He heard Ino’s obnoxious laughter, but couldn’t bring himself to turn his gaze from the girl in front of him. He noted that she had faint, barely-there freckles on her nose.

“My family is well-known in the potions world, yes,” he said slowly.

“Awesome,” she breathed, then spun in her seat when Fugaku cleared his throat pointedly.

Shikamaru was left staring at the side of her face for a few seconds before slowly turning in place on the stool. He blinked rapidly when he saw what looked like a smile flit across Professor Uchiha’s face. That was crazy, though. The man never smiled. Did he?

“Please look to the board for instructions on the potion you’ll be creating today. You have one hour to complete it.”

Uchiha spun on his heel and stalked to his desk, his robes flaring out around him dramatically. “So cool,” Mayu muttered, then turned and smiled at Shikamaru. “I’ll go get the extra ingredients if you want to set up the table. I know you don’t like, um, standing up. Or walking.”

He raised an eyebrow at her words and she waved her hands in front of her as though to ward off any ill feelings as she stood, stumbling once before regaining her balance. “Not that it’s bad! It’s cute, really.”

His other brow joined the first as Ino started laughing again and Mayu’s cheeks turned bright red. “R-right. I’m just going to -” she took off towards the supply closet and Shikamaru was left staring after her, baffled.

“Looks like the wittle Hufflepuff has a bit of a crush,” Ino crooned as soon as Naruto skipped off to get their ingredients.

Shikamaru glared at her. “She does not. I’ve never even spoken to her before.”

Ino rolled her eyes and a nail file appeared in her hands from seemingly nowhere. “Girls don’t have to talk to a boy to get a crush.” The _idiot_ was implied as she concentrated on filing her already-perfect nails. “Though honestly, I’m not sure what you’ve done to even gain her attention. All you do is sleep and complain.”

Shikamaru didn’t bother arguing with her, partly because he thought she might be right and partially because arguing with Ino was more trouble than it was worth. He started setting up the ingredients that were in his kit and pulled the knife set out that his parents had gotten him right before second year. By the time Mayu came back with an armful of supplies and still-red cheeks, he was slumped over, eyes half-lidded.

“Okay, well, I guess we should, um. Start?”

Shikamaru shrugged. “Sure.” When she just sat and stared at him, expression expectant, he sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“Well, first we need to create the solution,” he said and she nodded eagerly.

“Right! Let’s see...two parts water, one part bubotober puss...” Her tongue peeked out between her lips as she carefully measured the ingredients and added them to the cauldron and Shikamaru forced his gaze away from her.

He started the fire below the cauldron with a lazy wave of his wand and Mayu reached for the mandrake leaves. “Um, can I -” she gestured towards his knife and board and he nodded, then yawned.

“Wow, this is really nice.” She picked up the knife with near-reverence.

“My parents gave it to me. I think my mom was hoping it’d get me to take this class seriously.”

“Huh,” Mayu said and started cutting the leaves into even strips with sure movements.

He grabbed them as soon as she pushed them down the board towards him and put them on the scale he’d set out. “We need half an ounce more.” She nodded and cut a few more strips. He reached for them as she did and their fingers brushed. Her blush, which had finally subsided, came back with a vengeance and Shikamaru held back a sigh.

“Um. Are you trying out for the Quidditch team again?” she asked after they’d been quietly working for a few minutes.

Shikamaru shrugged. “Yeah. If I don’t Ino will be a total pain about it.”

“You - I mean, you’re really good.”

Shikamaru wasn’t sure why her praise made him want to puff out his chest, but he valiantly resisted the urge. “...thanks. I’ve never seen you play.”

“Naruto won’t let me try out anymore.” Her lip stuck out and Shikamaru looked away from her and stared down at the cutting board, willing himself not to blush.

“Why’s that?” He started to stir the potion and ignored the amused glances Ino was sending their way.

“Because my House is full of a bunch of babies who can’t handle a few hits -”

“You broke Anderson’s arm!” Naruto exclaimed, apparently deciding to tune into the conversation.

“Well, he should learn to dodge!” Mayu shot back.

“Mayu. Uzumaki. Do I need to pencil you in for detention this evening?” Professor Uchiha asked from where he was bent over Lee and Gaara’s cauldron, which was emitting an ominous dark green smoke. Lee was wringing his hands and looking generally ashamed, so Shikamaru assumed it was his fault. He sent Gaara a sympathetic look.

“Why, do you need help sorting ingredients? Because I can -”

“Mayu. Stop talking and finish your potion.”

“Right. Sorry, Professor Uchiha,” she chirped.

They fell into an easy rhythm, with Mayu preparing ingredients while Shikamaru added them and kept an eye on temperature and consistency. By the end of the hour, their potion was a perfect pearlescent blue and Shikamaru had caught Mayu gazing at him with something that looked suspiciously like adoration no less than five times. Dammit, he hated it when Ino was right. Though if she was going to be right about something, he supposed that a cute girl who was good at potions having a crush on him wasn’t the worst case scenario.

When Mayu scurried up to Professor Uchiha’s desk to hand in their vial, he eyed it and simply said, “Acceptable.”

Mayu smiled so wide her eyes almost squeezed shut from the force of it. “Thanks, Professor. Hey, tomorrow is the new moon. I know you’ll be going out to the Forbidden Forest to collect some ingredients. I could come and help you carry things?”

She looked so hopeful that even Fugaku Uchiha wasn’t cold-hearted enough to turn her down, it seemed. “Very well. I’ll let your head of house know. Meet me at the entrance hall at eight pm sharp.”

She cheered and then skipped back to their table, where Shikamaru was half-heartedly cleaning their space. “I bet he’d let you come, too. He’s your head of house, so he wouldn’t even have to get extra permission.” She avoided his gaze as she wiped down his knife with a cloth.

“Yeah, right, like Nara would agree to missing sleep to do extra work with a weirdo Hufflepuff,” one of the other Slytherins muttered and Mayu’s shoulders drooped as a few people around them snickered.

Shikamaru glared at the boy who had spoken. Before he could reply, however, Professor Uchiha had begun his lecture. Mayu spent the rest of the class focused on taking notes and avoiding Shikamaru’s gaze. As soon as class was over she shoved her parchment and pen into her bag and darted over to start talking to Hinata. She didn’t even say goodbye. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much.

000

“Professor.”

Fugaku looked over at Shikamaru, raising an eyebrow at the way he was slouched against the wall outside his office, hands shoved in his pockets. He was wearing black pants and a grey wool sweater over a white button-up, and his green tie was loosened at the collar.

“Mr. Nara. I’m on my way out. If it’s not urgent, can we discuss whatever it is you need tomorrow?”

Shikamaru straightened and Fugaku tilted his head to the side when his eyes opened all the way so he could meet his gaze. “Actually, Mayu invited me to come with you two. If you don’t mind, sir.”

Fugaku carefully hid his surprise. Despite his family’s tendency to churn out master potion makers, Shikamaru had never shown much passion for the craft. Oh, he was quite talented, Fugaku held no illusions about that, but he also knew that the boy wouldn’t put any effort forth at all if it weren’t for Fugaku intimidating him into it. So having him request to do extra potions homework that would certainly end in him having less than the ten hours of sleep per night that Fugaku knew the laziest and most intelligent boy in Slytherin insisted on getting was more than a little suspicious.

This was obviously more about Mayu Nomaka than potions. He’d paired Shikamaru with Mayu simply because he didn’t think anybody else in the room could keep up with her. Or keep her from blowing them all up the moment Fugaku looked in the other direction.

Now he was wondering if that had been a mistake. Of course, he’d noticed the way Mayu’s eyes followed Shikamaru in the Great Hall during meal times but hadn’t thought her crush would ever go anywhere. He’d started to think that the boy was asexual, or just too lazy for teenage romance.

He held back the urge to sigh, knowing he didn’t have any acceptable reason to keep Shikamaru from coming along. He wasn't one to turn students away from requested learning opportunities. Even if the reasons behind the request were suspect. “Of course, as long as it won’t put you behind on your other studies.”

Shikamaru’s lips twitched up at the corners. “Nope. I finished up everything on my list.”

Fugaku’s eyes narrowed. Both of them knew exactly what had been on his to-do list. Sleep, complain and avoid homework. Shikamaru was lucky he was so intelligent, otherwise, he never would have been able to keep up his just-good-enough scores. “Very well. Come.”

Shikamaru moved into step with him as they made their way out of the dungeons and towards the Entrance Hall.

“Professor!” Mayu’s voice rang out and Fugaku let out an almost imperceptible breath of air when he caught sight of her.

She was dressed in jeans and a black sweater and was juggling three empty baskets. There was a pair of safety goggles perched on her head and when she lifted an arm to wave one of the baskets slid down her arm and smacked her in the face, sending the glasses clattering across the stone floor.

“Ow,” she muttered. Shikamaru bent down and picked up the goggles, and her eyes widened when he reached out and set them carefully back on her head.

“You okay?” he asked as he took two of the baskets from her limp grip.

“Um. Yeah. I’m - yeah, I’m okay. You came.”

Shikamaru shrugged. “You invited me.”

Mayu stared at him, eyes practically sparkling in adoration, and Fugaku cleared his throat. “If you’re quite done, Mayu. We have a lot to do tonight.”

“Oh! Yes! Do you think we’ll find any Beyner Berries? I read that they’re really tricky to harvest, and I was hoping you could teach me.”

“The centaurs did mention that they’d seen some along the ridge,” he admitted as they stepped outside. Shikamaru jerked in surprised when she cheered and clapped her hands.

“Mayu, be calm, please. You’ll pull every creature looking for a snack to us if you carry on like that all night.”

“Wait, what?” Shikamaru said as Mayu muttered an apology and did her best to walk calmly by his side.

“Don’t worry, Shikamaru. Last year an Acromantula tried to attack us and Professor Uchiha kicked its a - uh, butt. It was awesome _._ Hey, Professor, do you think you could take on a troll? Are there trolls in the forest? I’ve never seen one before.”

“You look way too excited about the possibility,” Shikamaru said. Fugaku had almost forgotten what a proper reaction to danger from students looked like after so much time spent with Mayu.

“Well, it’s not like anything bad will happen to us while we’re with Professor Uchiha. Did you know he’s one of the best duelists of our time?” Fugaku decided it was dark enough that nobody would be able to see him look up at the sky in a bid for patience.

He was still trying to get used to Mayu’s hero worship of him. It hadn’t cooled much since she was a tiny first year, staring up at him and asking if he’d really invented the potion that curbed a vampire’s bloodlust and therefore paved the way for them to rejoin polite society. That was also the day she’d blown up her first cauldron. It wouldn’t be so bad if she held at least a modicum of fear of him, but her lack of survival instincts seemed to extend to all aspects of her life.

“Oh look! Lemongrass! Come on Shikamaru, let’s pick some for our kits.” Fugaku listened to their chatter (well, Mayu’s chatter) as he moved a little deeper into the forest to a small stream that had a few rare water plants growing on its banks.

Fugaku kept expecting Shikamaru to either fall asleep or break out into some form of acerbic commentary in response to Mayu’s seemingly endless babble. Instead, he just nodded along with her, adding to the conversation every once in a while with surprisingly relevant insights. It was...not the behavior he generally saw him displaying.

It was past midnight when Fugaku decided they should head back. “Mayu, Mr. Nara, come.”

Shikamaru stood from where he’d been adding dandelion roots to the now-full baskets. Mayu was looking off to the right into some brush with a strange expression on her face.

“Mayu?” Shikamaru prompted, and she jolted.

“Oh! Um. Sorry, I was spacing out. Wow, are we done already?”

“We are,” Fugaku said, only just managing to keep the weariness from his tone. Four hours straight of Mayu was a lot.

They walked Mayu to the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room and Fugaku turned away so he could roll his eyes without being seen at the way she rocked forward on her feet and said a shy goodbye to Shikamaru. The journey from the kitchen corridor to the dungeons was blessedly silent, punctuated only by Shikamaru’s increasingly dramatic yawns.

He wasn’t even surprised when the transfiguration teacher sent him a message the next morning letting him know Shikamaru slept through his class. _Teenagers._

000

“I was thinking.” Shikamaru jerked in surprise when Mayu plopped into the seat next to him at lunch a week after their adventure in the Forbidden Forest.

“What are you doing at our table, ‘puffy?” Josie Yankovich, a seventh year who was as annoying as she was beautiful, said with a sneer.

Mayu rolled her eyes. “Talking to Shikamaru, _obviously._ No wonder you’re failing charms.”

Shikamaru snickered at Josie’s outraged expression and Mayu deliberately turned her back on the girl to grin up at him. “Hey,” he said.

“Hi. So. Um, I was thinking, the heartburn potion we’re making today. I have a few ideas on how to make it stronger. I bet Professor Uchiha would give us extra credit if we managed it.”

“You wanna change the recipe?” Shikamaru took a bite of green beans as she flipped open her potions book and turned to the correct page.

“Yeah. I mean, I thought if we added an extra quill and mint...”

“Wouldn’t that decrease the -”

“Yeah, but if we reduce the heat a little sooner, that should make up for it.”

He tried not to be charmed by her earnest expression and failed miserably. With a sigh, he looked more closely at the book. “It won’t be enough to reduce the heat sooner. We’ll need something to stabilize it. Maybe...lavender?”

Mayu frowned down at the page. “It’s neutral when paired with the other ingredients, I think...yeah, that might work. So, you don’t mind?”

Shikamaru shook his head and she beamed at him. “Yay! I knew you wouldn’t be a boring partner.”

His eyes widened when she leaned in and kissed his cheek before bounding back to the Hufflepuff table. Ino burst out laughing and Shikamaru hunched down in his seat, knowing his face had turned red. His heart was thumping in his chest and with the way his stomach was doing flips, he thought he might end up needing that heartburn potion by the end of the day.

Fugaku did give them extra credit when their adjustments to the potion recipe worked. He also excused Shikamaru from the final detention in a series of four he’d been given after skipping Transfiguration to sleep in last week. All in all, it was worth the extra effort.

After that Mayu started joining him at the Slytherin table a few times a week to discuss potion modifications. His potion grade had gone from average to Outstanding, and Fugaku had stopped giving him that same look all his teachers did. The one that said _I know you’re better than this, why are you wasting your talents, blah blah blah._

000

“You don’t like potions much, do you?” Mayu asked, breaking the silence they’d been working in for the past hour.

They were in the library writing up a joint essay Professor Uchiha had assigned on the moon’s effect on the magical strength of certain ingredients. Shikamaru looked up at her, eyes lingering on the way she was tapping her quill against her bottom lip. He wondered if her lips were as soft as they looked.

“Why do you say that?”

“I mean, you’re really good at it, but you never really seem excited about it. You only do the extra stuff because you’re being nice to me, and you do your regular work because Professor Uchiha is scary.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, not really. I know my family’s known for our potions work, but it’s not what I want to focus on.”

“What _do_ you want to focus on, then?” She looked honestly curious, so he decided to be honest instead of giving his default answer of ‘sleep.’

“I want to handle the business side of things. Ino-Shika-Cho is a successful company, but I think we could expand into other industries and overseas.”

Mayu leaned forward, eyes lighting in interest. “Oh! That’s so interesting. You should get a muggle business degree after we graduate next year.”

Shikamaru warmed at her positive response. Most wizards looked at him like he was crazy when he said he wanted to be a businessman, which was why he didn’t tell most people his actual goals. Generally business was secondary to a magical focus unless one wanted to get a job in politics. Which Shikamaru emphatically did not. “Muggles study business as a subject?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Muggles have a lot of specializations that are super interesting. I want to get a degree in biochemical engineering along with earning a Mastery in potion making.”

“You seem to know a lot about the muggle education system.”

“Oh, well, my parents were muggles, so I was raised in the muggle world.”

Shikamaru didn’t miss her use of the past tense, and he hesitated before asking. “Were...?”

Mayu shrugged. “Yeah, they died when I was a baby. I was raised by a really nice couple in foster care in London. They don’t know I’m a witch, of course - they think I’m at some prestigious private school that I got a scholarship for. I still go back there during the summers.”

She didn’t seem overly upset by the information she’d just revealed so he didn’t bother with any platitudes. When they were done with their essay he walked her back to her common room and didn’t complain when she put her arm through his while she chattered on about what, exactly, biochemical engineering was.

They both blushed when she kissed his cheek before disappearing into her common room.

000

Shikamaru woke up on the morning of his birthday to a pile of presents at the foot of his bed. His parents had gotten him a new pair of Quidditch gloves, spelled to absorb some of the impact when he used his hands to block the quaffle. Ino had given him a few soft sweaters that he was sure were at the height of fashion, and Chouji had gotten him a collection of his favorite candies.

There was one more package than usual sitting at the end of his bed and he pulled the bright silver and green bag towards himself, curious. Shikamaru tugged out the tissue paper decorated with flying brooms and snitches and set it to the side. Inside the bag were two large books and a card. He pulled the books out first and raised his eyebrows when he realized they were muggle books about starting and running your own business.

He pulled the card from the envelope, already knowing who it would be from. He snorted when he saw the sleeping corgi in a birthday hat on the front before opening it.

_Shikamaru,_

_I hope you like these - according to my foster parents, they’re both widely acclaimed business books in the muggle world. Happy Birthday, and as part of your birthday week, I’ve included an outline for your potions essay that’s due on Monday, as well. That should make it easy to complete and give you more napping time this weekend._

_Yours,_

_Mayu_

He realized, suddenly, that Mayu was the only person other than Chouji who never looked down at him. She didn’t scold him for his naps or his lack of academic ambition, and she certainly never accused him of wasting his life. In fact, she’d asked him what he was interested in and then gotten him gifts that would help him achieve his goals...along with encouraging him to nap as much as he wanted this weekend in celebration of his birthday.

When he got to the Great Hall he spotted her at the Hufflepuff table, picking at some eggs and reading a paperback. Ino rolled her eyes when he changed direction to go over to her and muttered something about his ‘weird girlfriend.’ Chouji just shrugged good-naturedly and said he’d save him a seat at the Slytherin table.

“Hey.” Mayu looked up, and the way she smiled at him made his skin feel flushed and warm.

“Hi. Um, Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks.” He sat down next to her and bumped his shoulder against hers. “And thanks for the presents. They were kind of perfect.”

Her cheeks turned red and he couldn’t help but think she was kind of adorable when she was embarrassed. “I’m glad. I - I actually made you a list of books. If you like those, I can recommend more for you.”

“You made me a list of books? Really?” He leaned forward, watching the way her lashes brushed against her cheek when she looked down at her plate.

“Yeah. Just. You know, because I realized that the wizarding world doesn’t have a lot of books focused just on business. And I. I want to help you. If I can. Because we’re friends.”

He wasn’t sure why his stomach swooped with disappointment at the word 'friends,' but her words still had him flashing a smile. She looked over and stilled, eyes darting between his lips and his eyes before she cleared her throat and looked down at the book she’d set on the table, fiddling with the pages.

“Are you coming to my Quidditch game this afternoon?” He wasn’t sure why he asked since she’d already told him she thought watching the game was dull, but for some reason, he really wanted her there.

“I - you’re playing Ravenclaw, right?”

He nodded and watched as her teeth bit lightly at her bottom lip. She looked up at him from under her lashes and he wondered why it suddenly felt so warm in there. “Do you want me to come?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat when his voice came out gruffer than he intended. “I mean, only if you’ll be cheering for my team.”

This time when she bit her lip, it was to try and hide a smile. “I don’t like Ravenclaw much. They always act like they’re the only house that can have intelligent people.” She huffed in annoyance and he laughed.

“Well, considering the two top students of our year are you and Sasuke Uchiha, you’d think they’d get a clue.”

Mayu’s blush deepened and she squeaked. “You - I didn’t realize you knew that.”

He leaned forward. “I’m lazy, not blind. Thanks again for the presents.” Before he could think better of it he leaned forward and brushed his lips against the soft skin of her cheek.

He stood and tucked his hands in his pockets, ignoring the whistles and catcalls coming from the Slytherin table as he shuffled his way over to sit next to Ino. She’d already served him what he knew was a balanced breakfast and he took a bite of eggs and ignored her pointed stare, though he could feel it burning into the side of his head.

“Really, Shikamaru? Crazy Mayu?”

“Don’t call her that,” he said more sharply than he intended, and she snorted.

“I never thought I’d see the day when you’d finally get all stupid over a girl. Next, she’ll have you worshipping the ground Professor Uchiha walks on and studying strange growths on the side of the castle.”

“I’m not getting stupid over a girl. We’re just friends.”

“Shikamaru, she made you laugh _._ And you’ve never kissed me or Chouji on the cheek.”

Shikamaru glared down at his plate. She wasn’t wrong, but...Shikamaru didn’t date. It was much too troublesome. He’d seen boys in his year driven absolutely barmy by the crazy that was women. They ended up doing all these insane, out of character things that made them miserable just to keep their girlfriends happy and seemed to shed IQ points like water off ducks once their hormones got involved. Shikamaru considered himself much too intelligent to get caught in that trap.

He spent the hours between breakfast and his game dozing under a tree in the courtyard while Ino forced Chouji to paint her nails. Shikamaru knew that none of the guys would tease Chouji for it later, mostly because they were all wishing it was them that Ino was asking to spend time with. He wasn’t oblivious to his childhood friend’s popularity with the opposite sex, though he wished he were. That shit was disturbing to think about.

When he was risking Sasuke’s ire by being any later he roused and grabbed his duffle bag and broom from where he’d set them next to the tree. Ino and Chouji followed him, Shikamaru tuning out Ino’s running commentary on how dreamy Sasuke was while Chouji snacked on chocolate frogs.

He separated from them at the locker rooms, accepting Ino’s hug and Chouji’s enthusiastic shoulder slap.

“Nice of you to join us, Nara,” Sasuke drawled.

“Yeah, no problem,” Shikamaru said, ignoring the sarcasm. He still had ten minutes before they were supposed to start warming up. Plenty of time.

The sounds of the crowd were growing louder as he changed into his green robes and gear. For the first time in years he was feeling nervous before a game. Which was ridiculous. Shikamaru was an excellent keeper and an even better strategist. He’d probably be team captain if everybody didn’t know he was too lazy to do it properly.

He listened with half an ear as Sasuke went over the plays he and Shikamaru had come up with one more time. What was so different about this game, anyway? It wasn’t until he’d mounted his Firebolt and started doing laps around the stands with his team that it hit him. He caught a flash of yellow from the corner of his eye and turned so quickly he almost ran his broom into Sasuke’s.

Disappointment curdled in his stomach when he saw it was just a group of first-year Hufflepuffs. And, _oh,_ that’s what was different about today. Mayu said she’d be there, cheering for his team.

His nerves were...unexpected. Shikamaru just didn’t get worked up about things like this. Sure, he hated losing in Quidditch, since it was one of the few things he actually cared about, but he never worried about what other people thought of his performance. Until now, apparently.

When he finally caught sight of her he couldn’t quite stop himself from breaking away from formation - yeah, Sasuke would probably kill him for that later - and swooping down to hover in front of her. She was sitting with Hinata and Naruto, wearing a Slytherin scarf over her yellow tie.

Shikamaru couldn’t stop the pang of jealousy when he wondered who, exactly, had lent it to her. Next time, he’d make sure to give her one of his. His ire cooled when she beamed and held up a sign that flashed back and forth between the words _Go Slytherin!_ and _Shikamaru is a Keeper!_ in silver and green. He snorted at the play on words and his chest warmed when he realized she wasn’t just cheering for his team, but for him specifically _._

He returned her smile and did a barrel roll (no, he was _not_ showing off) before speeding off to rejoin his team before the game started. Not even the Uchiha Death Glare could stifle his good mood. As he took his place in front of the goal posts, he was pretty sure nothing could ruin his day.

Two hours later, the world had proved him wrong. He held an ice pack to his throbbing head while Madam Senju wrapped his ankle, muttering about stupid kids and overly dangerous sports. Ino and Chouji were standing at the side of his bed, both looking like they were ready to go out and start beating on unsuspecting Ravenclaws.

“I cannot _believe_ they didn’t call that! Those Ravenclaw _assholes_ get away with everything. It’s horrible! That was such an obvious foul - the way he just rammed into you! I thought you were going to die after you hit that pole and started falling -” Her voice cracked and Chouji wrapped an arm around her when she sniffled.

Shikamaru reached out and grabbed her hand. “Ino, I’m fine. Really.”

“Yeah, but only because -” she was cut off when the door opened with a bang.

Shikamaru jolted, sending a fresh wave of pain up his leg when his foot moved. “Fuck,” he muttered, then cringed when Madam Senju glared at him. “Sorry.”

“Shikamaru!” He perked up and craned his head to peek around the curtain that was drawn around his bed.

“Mayu?” The curtain pulled aside to reveal a frantic-looking Mayu, eyes overly bright and hair wind-blown. Hinata and Naruto were standing behind her looking supremely uncomfortable.

Mayu’s gaze darted over him and some of the tension drained from her shoulders. She dashed forward and slammed against his chest and he _oofed_ as her arms went around him. “You’re okay,” she said and her voice sounded thick with tears. “I tried to come right away, but it was so hard to get through the crowd and then some Gryffindors tried to start a fight with me when they saw my sign -”

He brought the arm not holding the ice pack up to wrap around her and suddenly his injuries didn’t seem quite so annoying. She was soft and warm and she’d been so worried about him that she was practically in tears. While part of him couldn’t help but preen a bit at her concern, a larger part was suddenly furious with the Ravenclaw who had attempted to take him out. Because of his actions Mayu was upset, and that was just...kind of awful, actually.

“It’s fine. I’ve only been here for a few minutes,” he said soothingly and ignored Ino’s pointed look.

Mayu pulled back and his breath caught at how close their faces were as she gently lifted the side of the ice pack to examine the fairly large goose egg on his head. Her expression darkened. “I’m going to make Karafsky wish he were _dead,”_ she hissed with a surprising amount of venom for a Hufflepuff that usually skipped around waxing poetic about potion ingredients and Fugaku Uchiha.

Madam Senju sighed. “Kid, you might want to wait until a member of the staff isn’t standing right here before plotting out your revenge.”

Mayu glanced over at her. “Oh, hey, Madam Senju. Long time no see.”

“You were here last week after you accidentally spelled your own nostrils shut,” the mediwitch said flatly and Shikamaru would never get tired of how cute Mayu looked when she blushed.

“What happened to doctor-patient confidentiality? Wait, why are you wrapping his ankle? Is it broken?” She turned back to him and her hands fluttered above his torso. “Does it hurt horribly?”

He slumped against his pillow and shrugged, enjoying her attention too much to play it cool. “It hurts pretty bad, yeah.”

Ino’s jaw dropped and Madam Senju snorted. Mayu ignored them in favor of putting her hand to his cheek. “What kind of operation are you running here? He’s in _pain -”_

“I’ve barely had him in here for ten minutes. Go grab him a pain potion from the cupboard if you’re so worried. God knows you’re here often enough to know where I store everything.”

“Wait. What?” Shikamaru said as Mayu dashed over to one of the cupboards along the wall and started rifling through it.

Madam Senju flashed him a sharp smile as she finished wrapping his ankle and set it on a pillow. “What? Didn’t realize your new girlfriend has a frequent visitors card to the Infirmary?”

Mayu ran back to his side and his reply - whatever it may have been - was lost when she started fussing with his pillows. “Okay, come on, you’ll probably be sleepy after you drink this. You should lay down right after.”

Mayu popped open the cork on a small, blue vial and held it to his lips. He wasn’t sure he really needed it - his ankle was only sprained and other than his headache and a few bruises he wasn’t feeling that much pain. Still, something in him liked the way she was taking care of him, so he didn’t protest before gulping it down.

She cajoled Chouji into helping him lay down before she adjusted his blankets and tugged them smooth. He shifted when his ponytail dug into the pillow and Mayu was immediately next to him, gently taking his hair out of the band. He stared up at her face, which was pulled into a small frown, and his eyelids drooped. Between the pain potion and the waves of contentment that seemed to flow straight from where her fingers were smoothing down his hair all the way to his toes, he was getting sleepy.

“We’ll come back in a few hours,” Ino’s overly-amused voice said and he barely managed to grunt out a goodbye.

Their footsteps grew fainter until the sound of the large wooden doors opening and then closing reached him. Mayu moved her attention from his hair to his face and he winced when she pressed a fresh ice pack to his head.

“You look different with your hair down.” His eyes moved from the gap in her blouse that was showing a hint of blue lace beneath (when had he started staring at her chest? Probably as soon as she started leaning over him to hold the pack in place) to her face.

“Good different?”

A small, shy smile flitted across her face and if the world were less fuzzy, he’d - well, he wasn’t sure what he would do, but he was sure it would be amazing. “Yes. Good different.”

“That - that’s good,” he mumbled as his eyelids grew heavier. “Your hair is nice, too. It’s kind of blue in the right light, did you know?” The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was her soft laughter.

When he woke up, it was to the sound of people arguing in the kind of loud whispers that may as well be yelling. “You’re the captain, Sakura! You’re not supposed to let psychopaths on your team!”

“Mayu, Karafsky isn’t a psychopath, he’s just a little...enthusiastic.”

“Is that what you call it?” That was Sasuke, though he didn’t bother whispering. “Because his _enthusiasm_ almost killed my keeper.”

A sigh, then, “I’m taking care of it, okay? By the time I’m done with him, he won’t even contemplate dirty play like that again. Mayu, come on, you know I didn’t tell him to do that, right?”

There was a moment of silence and then a sigh and the rustle of fabric to Shikamaru’s right. “Yeah, I know. You’re super scary but you’re not a cheater.”

“And even if I were, I’d never target one of my friends’ boyfriends.”

“He’s not my _boyfriend,_ we - we’re just -”

“Did we win?” Shikamaru’s voice came out a little rough and he probably should have had some water or something before speaking but he really didn’t want the current conversation to continue. He opened his eyes and was relieved when his head only gave a dull throb. Tsunade Senju was one awesome mediwitch.

Sasuke, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, still in his Quidditch gear, straightened. “Yep.”

“Yay,” Mayu said and Shikamaru glanced over at where she was sitting in a chair next to his bed.

There was a charms book sitting on the table next to him with what looked like half of the twenty-inch essay he knew was due next Wednesday. His stomach tightened pleasantly when he realized she’d stayed with him for at least a few hours, judging by the way the world had gone dark outside his window.

Sakura was standing next to her, also still in her Quidditch gear, currently-pink hair windblown. She was scowling, probably at the reminder that her team had lost even after one of the best players on Slytherin had been taken out halfway into the game.

“Hey, Sakura. Good to hear you didn’t put a hit out on me.”

Sakura’s smile was tight but genuine. “If I wanted to take you out I’d do it myself, Nara.”

He snorted and held out a fist for her to bump and her smile grew. Sakura was one of the few Ravenclaws that he didn’t find exhausting. Sure, she was a bit of a know-it-all and sometimes so colorful it hurt his eyes when she went really crazy with her metamorphmagus abilities (her preferred hair color was pastel pink. Just. Why?), but she was also wicked smart and never lectured him. She didn’t take house rivalries too far, either, probably because she’d been attached at the hips to Sasuke and Naruto since they were firsties.

Mayu cleared her throat and stood. “Madam Senju said that you could leave once you woke up. The wrap on your ankle should have healed it by now.”

Shikamaru frowned and wondered why she was suddenly looking so dejected. She nattered on about the magical properties of the salve that the wrap had been soaked in as she gently unwound it and when he glanced at Sakura, she just shrugged. Right, she didn’t know why Mayu was acting weird, either.

They left a few minutes later and Mayu was staring at her feet as they walked. Yep, she was being totally weird. Shikamaru ran through their conversation, wondering what had caused it, but wasn’t able to come up with anything he or Sakura had done that would upset her.

“There’s cake in the Slytherin common room if you two want to come,” Sasuke said when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Cake?” Mayu asked.

“Yeah. Birthday cake.” He smirked when Shikamaru groaned. Ino knew he hated a big fuss on his birthday, yet every year she managed to convince the house elves to bake him a cake and then threw him an impromptu party in the common room.

Mayu was looking back and forth between them, obviously unsure if she should come after his response. He sent her the lopsided smile that always made her blush (What? He couldn’t help but notice these things). “Come on, if you’re there it won’t be quite so horrible.”

She brightened and Shikamaru pretended he didn’t see Sasuke’s eye roll or hear Sakura’s giggle. “Oh. Okay. I mean, it is your birthday. We should try to salvage it.”

Shikamaru returned her smile with a proper one of his own since he couldn’t _not_ when she was looking so adorable. He couldn’t help but think that despite the injuries, so far his birthday had been pretty damn awesome. And it had everything to do with the crazy, brilliant girl who was now bouncing along next to him while dropping into a long speech about the history of birthday candles.

He wasn’t even surprised when Karafsky’s hair fell out and his skin turned yellow halfway through breakfast two days later. It turned out Mayu was pretty vicious when riled, Hufflepuff or not. Shikamaru was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to think it was cute.

000

It was mid-November and they’d been potion partners for almost three months. Shikamaru may have become a little complacent with Mayu’s suggestions for changes to their potions. At least, that’s the only explanation he could come up with for missing her miscalculation for the skele-gro formula.

As the liquid went from a calm grey to a hissing, bubbling green mass with _tentacles_ growing out of it, Shikamaru admitted to himself that he’d been distracted by the way her hair had been lying against her collarbone at lunch that day. Otherwise, he probably would have balked when she’d suggested trying to change the formula so that it would regrow bones in half the time by adding an accelerant to a base that encouraged rapid cell growth.

Apparently, they’d just created some sort of life form that was hell-bent on eating them all. He pulled Mayu under a nearby table as screams erupted around them, wincing when one of the tentacles latched onto Ino’s long ponytail and tugged.

Fugaku was attempting to wade through the students that were screaming and running for the door. Another tentacle latched onto a tiny Hufflepuff's ankle and yanked her off her feet, holding her upside down and shaking her.

“I don’t want to die!” she screamed just before Fugaku sent a stream of red at the tentacle and she dropped to the floor in a whimpering heap of black and yellow.

A few minutes later the tentacle monster was trapped in a bubble that Professor Uchiha had managed put around it after subduing the six-foot-long appendages that had been whipping around destroying everything they could reach. Ino was holding six inches of her hair in her hands, which Professor Uchiha had been forced to lop off to free her from the tentacle’s grip.

She was sobbing and yelling about idiot Hufflepuffs and lazy Naras. Professor Uchiha practically shoved a calming potion down her throat before slowly turning and giving them a steady look that had even Mayu shifting uncomfortably.

She glanced around at the smoking remains of the classroom and gulped. “Um. Oops?”

Their teacher closed his eyes for a few seconds before speaking. “Nomaka. Nara. What. Happened.”

“It was my fault!” Mayu blurted. “Shikamaru didn’t...I mean, I wanted to try and create a version that grew the bones faster, but I didn’t have time to run it by him today, so I just decided to try it without talking to him first.”

Shikamaru turned a glare on her. “That’s not -”

“Of course it was you! Shikamaru would never do something so stupid,” Ino sobbed and Mayu elbowed him in the side as Professor Uchiha’s attention was pulled back to the girl who was kneeling on the ground and clutching what used to be half her ponytail to her chest. A calming potion could only do so much in the face of her ruined hair, apparently.

“Ino will never forgive you if she finds out you knew,” Mayu hissed.

“I’m not letting you take the fall.”

Mayu rolled her eyes at him and annoyance heated his chest. He’d agreed to move ahead with the changes, he wasn’t going to let her take all the blame. And why had he agreed to it without looking more closely, anyway? That wasn’t like him.

“Professor, I should have noticed that the new formula was -”

“Enough. You two will both serve detention with me for the next two weeks, and any time you want to make a change to a recipe in the future, you will run it by me first. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Professor,” they both said.

“Good. Now, clean this mess up, I’m taking Yamanaka and whoever else needs it to the Infirmary.”

Shikamaru’s movements were jerky as he began waving his wand, putting out the small fires that had been started by knocked over cauldrons and panicked spell casting. Two weeks of detention meant he’d have no extra time to himself. This is why he avoided women in general. He’d become something he promised himself he never would - another boy being led around by his hormones.

“Shikamaru? Are - are you mad?” Mayu asked after about half an hour of working in tense silence.

“What do you think, Nomaka? I don’t know why you always have to be so - so -”

He cut off when he saw her stricken expression and blew out a breath. “Never mind. Just. Stop with the changes, alright?”

Mayu looked down at her feet and nodded. Her voice was so quiet he could barely hear her when she spoke. “Alright.”

000

Shikamaru hadn’t spoken to Mayu in a week. Fugaku had separated them during their detentions and as requested she hadn’t made any suggestions for changes to potions. Which meant she no longer joined him for lunch.

He missed her stupid rambles and her snooty attitude and the way she proclaimed things ‘dull’ when she didn’t want to deal with them. For some reason, though, he couldn’t bring himself to bridge the distance he’d created between them. She’d attempted to apologize twice more, and each time he’d blown her off.

Shikamaru wasn’t even angry anymore. He just wasn’t sure how to be around her without turning into an idiot. His whole life he’d watched his father be led around by his mother, and more recently, his friends be led around by their girlfriends. He’d always sworn that he wouldn’t fall into the same trap, yet here he was.

Shikamaru didn’t blow up classrooms or get his best friend disfigured (her words, not his - he thought she looked just fine with shorter hair). He didn’t let people fuss over him, and he certainly didn’t volunteer to go on midnight potion ingredient gathering trips. Romance made people crazy, and he wanted no part of it.

“Maybe you should go talk to her,” Chouji said in a low tone when Ino was distracted by a girl asking her advice on what to wear for a midnight rendezvous with a boy.

Shikamaru glared down at his meatloaf and gave it a vicious stab. “Why? So Ino can disown me and I can earn more detentions?”

Chouji heaved a great sigh but didn’t say anything else. Shikamaru almost felt bad - he knew he’d been a grouch that week. But, well, he couldn’t help it. His mother had sent him a Howler three days ago after Ino’s dad had told her about what happened, and on top of that, he had detention every night. Not to mention that every time he sat next to Mayu in potions she spent the whole time looking tragic _,_ and he felt like the world’s biggest asshole.

He glanced over at the Hufflepuff table and Mayu’s eyes widened when he saw that she was looking at him. Her face went bright red and she ducked her head. Hinata leaned in to whisper something in her ear and she shook her head before shoving a large bite of potatoes in her mouth.

Hinata looked up and sent him an icy glare that was more terrifying than it had any right to be coming from the tiny, shy Hyuuga. Shikamaru looked back at his plate and sighed. Yeah, he knew he was being an asshole, but...he didn’t want to be in love. He wanted to nap and skip class and annoy Ino and play Quidditch.

The next day Mayu slid into potions next to him after having a whispered conversation at the door with Naruto. His hands were waving around and he said, “You just have to _try,_ Mayu!” before she’d sighed and made her way over.

It was a lecture day and he felt her eyes on him more than a few times throughout the hour. When Professor Uchiha finally released them Shikamaru was fairly certain he hadn’t heard a word the man had said. He’d been too focused on the girl next to him. Every breath and every fidget had drawn his attention to her like a moth to a flame.

He shoved his books into his bag with more force than he normally would, annoyed with himself. What good was being a genius if he couldn’t stop thinking about one girl?

“Shikamaru?” a hand on his arm stopped him before he stood and his body moved before he gave it permission. He turned in his seat and glanced over at her, swallowing at how cute she looked when she tucked her hair behind her ear and gave him a hopeful smile.

“Yeah?”

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I, um. I was wondering what you’re doing tonight. I have - I mean, when we were out in the forest a few months ago, I saw -”

“Whatever crazy shit you have planned, I don’t want any part of it.” It came out much louder and harsher than he expected, but he’d felt a frisson of panic when he realized that he wanted to say _yes_ to whatever probably-against-the-rules thing she was about to invite him to. And he didn’t even know what it was. It was the skele-gro all over.

She reared back as though he’d slapped her and he froze when her eyes filled with tears. The people who hadn’t left the classroom yet were staring at them and when she finally spoke, it was easy to hear her words in the sudden silence.

“Shikamaru, I wish I’d never _met_ you.” A tear dropped down onto her cheek and he was fairly certain his heart had just twisted around itself in his chest. Before he could think of anything to say she turned and fled the classroom.

Shikamaru’s hands fisted in his backpack and he stared down at the table in front of him. He had made Mayu cry. “Fuck,” he said and when he looked up he wasn’t surprised to see that all of the Hufflepuffs in the room were glaring at him.

What was surprising is that most of the Slytherins were glaring at him, too. And, of course, Professor Uchiha. Well, he had just watched Shikamaru stomp all over the feelings of his favorite pupil, so it wasn’t unexpected.

“Nara. Show up two hours early for detention,” he said before gliding out of the room.

Awesome, that meant Shikamaru wouldn’t be eating that night. He stood with a sigh, guilt making his limbs feel heavy. When he shuffled over to join Ino and Chouji at the door he could feel his friends’ disapproval pressing against him.

Ino didn’t speak until they were almost to their next class. “I’ve always known you were a bit of an asshole, Shikamaru, but up until now I never would have thought you were cruel.”

She sauntered into the charms classroom in a cloud of feminine fury and Shikamaru was stopped from following when Chouji rested a hand on his shoulder. He looked over at his friend, whose smile was sad and full of understanding.

“You know, Shikamaru...some things are worth the trouble.”

Shikamaru was left standing in the corridor when Chouji followed Ino inside,feet glued in place.

“Goddamnit.”

“Language,” one of the paintings yelled.

000

Shikamaru shifted uncomfortably under the glares of the Hufflepuffs. He hadn’t realized just how terrifying they could be until that moment. Now that he’d triggered that loyalty they were so well known for he understood why their house animal was a badger.

“I know I screwed up, alright? I just - I just want to apologize.”

“Mayu’s sleeping. She was tired from all the crying she did this afternoon,” a girl who couldn’t have been over the age of twelve said.

Shikamaru gritted his teeth when his stomach tightened, guilt making him want to curl up into a ball and cry a little himself. “Will you tell her I stopped by when she wakes up? And that I want to talk to her?” He had already figured out that he wasn’t getting past her housemates and he didn’t want to be torn apart by angry second years by attempting to make a run for the common room door.

The girl, who had apparently been voted the spokesperson of this little gathering, narrowed her eyes. “We’ll see. Maybe next time you should show up with flowers and we’ll think about letting you in.”

Shikamaru was left standing alone in a hallway for the second time that day, mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out, as the tiny Hufflepuffs flounced away, disappearing behind the barrels that hid the door to their common room.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, that was...terrifying.”

Shikamaru shook his head before turning and heading back towards the dungeons for what was sure to be a miserable detention. Not that he didn’t deserve it. He’d seen the way Mayu’s smile faded when people called her Crazy Mayu or rolled their eyes at her enthusiasm for potions and Professor Uchiha and whatever other weird subjects she was focused on that day. Why had he used those exact words? _Because you knew it’d hurt her enough to get her to leave you alone._

Shikamaru pressed his lips together. He was an idiot and an asshole. _I would never have thought you were cruel. Some things are worth the trouble._

He breathed out as his best friends' words rattled around his brain. Tomorrow, he’d find her and apologize. And, yeah, maybe he’d bring her flowers. Shikamaru was done avoiding his feelings - he only hoped Mayu would be willing to forgive him.

000

Mayu darted out from under the tree she’d been crouched behind, the light from the moon giving her a clear view of the ground in front of her. She ran across the open field, praying that no teachers happened to look out of their windows and catch sight of her running towards the Forbidden Forest.

When she made it to the dark, twisted trees without anybody appearing to yell at her she let out a slow, relieved breath. She tightened her grip on her wand and pulled her top lip in between her teeth as she took in the dark, ominous shadows around her.

It wasn’t the first time she’d snuck out into the forest after dark, but she’d never gone as deep as she planned to go tonight without Professor Uchiha by her side. Mayu took a deep breath and gathered her courage. There was a reason behind this little trip - an important one.

When she’d come out with Professor Uchiha and Shikamaru in September, she’d caught a glimpse of a young Fila Plant. They were exceedingly rare and crazy useful in potions. There was a special way to harvest them under the full moon that made their leaves extra potent.

And Professor Uchiha’s birthday was next week. It was the perfect gift - like gold, except in potion ingredients form. Mayu knew from previous jaunts out into the forest with her favorite professor that it was best to be as silent as possible to avoid drawing unwanted attention to herself. She resisted the urge to use a _lumos_ to light her way, instead relying the light of the full moon filtering in through the thick trees.

Mayu jumped when an owl hooted somewhere above her, then shook her head at her nerves. She wished Shikamaru was there. The thought made her throat tighten and she had to blink rapidly past her tears. She’d really thought that...well, that he liked her, despite her somewhat difficult personality.

Then she’d gone and ruined it all by unleashing a tentacle monster on their class and destroying his best friend’s hair. Now he looked at her the same way most people did - like she was too weird and too abrasive to bother with. It was Mayu’s own fault for being stupid enough to fall in love with him, really.

She stepped over a fallen tree and winced when a branch cracked under her boot. It felt like there were a thousand eyes on her, but she ignored the feeling in favor of her pity party.

When Professor Uchiha had assigned Shikamaru as her potions partner, she’d been ecstatic. Mayu had been nursing a crush on him since second year when they’d taken Care of Magical Creatures together. She just liked everything about him, really. The way he was unapologetically himself was something she could respect.

He wasn’t ashamed of his laziness, and honestly, his languid movements and relaxed demeanor were pretty attractive. Of course, the fact that he was ridiculously intelligent was something she hadn’t missed, either. When he actually took something seriously nothing would stop him from being the best at it. She supposed that was what had landed him in Slytherin in the first place. The difference between him and most of his house was that he was only ambitious when it was important.

Mayu hadn’t quite been able to believe it when he accepted her clumsy overtures of friendship. He was just so sweet in an acerbic, sleepy kind of way. She’d even thought that maybe he’d started to return her feelings after his disaster of a birthday and had been patiently waiting for him to figure it out and maybe even _ask her_ out.

Shows how much she knew. It had been pretty naive, thinking that somebody as amazing as Shikamaru would choose her, of all people. Not when he could have his pick of the pretty girls. Mayu knew she wasn’t the only female to recognize that his reticence was actually pretty sexy.

Especially when he was on his broom, sweeping in and knocking quaffles away from the goal with the same indolent attitude he used for everything else. Or when he smiled that little half-smile of his when she said something he thought was cute or funny. Or when he was sleeping - or doing anything, really.

Relief flooded her when she reached the bushes that hid the Fila plant from view and gave her something less depressing to focus on. A whispered spell had them parting so that she could kneel next to the blue leaves, which were glowing slightly under the light of the full moon.

“Oh, you’re quite beautiful,” she crooned at the delicate leaves. “Don’t worry, I’m just going to take a few - wouldn’t want to kill such a pretty plant, would we?”

Mayu pulled the strap of her bag over her head and laid it next to her so she could rummage around for the supplies she would need. Then she took a deep, steadying breath and cleared her thoughts of anything but the ritual she’d need to perform to keep the power from escaping the leaves as soon as she separated them from the plant.

Mayu began chanting the incantation she’d memorized from the advanced potions book she’d found in the library. Her wand moved through the precise movements the spell called for as she spoke. A few minutes later there was a flare of green that she knew signaled that the spell had been successful and Mayu set her wand down next to her within easy reach.

She picked up a pair of sheers and snipped three of the blue leaves from the plant at the base, letting out a breath of relief when they retained their glow. Moving slowly so as not to bruise or damage the leaves, she folded them into a cloth that she’d placed strong stasis spells on earlier that day.

She slipped the whole thing into a small wooden box she’d brought to act as extra protection and put it into her bag. “There,” she said cheerfully to the Fila. “What did I tell you? Barely even hurt.”

She pulled the strap of her bag back over her head and stood, wobbling a little as feeling rushed back into her legs. She took a moment to shake them out after releasing her spell on the bushes, and that was when she noticed the complete silence that had fallen around her.

Mayu froze, her heartbeat picking up as adrenaline flooded her system. Something not-nice was out there, and she was the last to figure it out. Her eyes darted around and she held her wand up in front of her and turned in a slow circle. She only saw the shapes of trees and dark shadows.

Her skin crawled and she decided that standing out in the open like an idiot wasn’t going to do her any favors. She began picking her way back towards the castle. She placed each step with the utmost care and stuck as close to the trees as she could. If she had to, she could probably climb one. Maybe.

The eerie silence remained as she continued on her way towards home. She really hoped it wasn’t an Acromantula. Those things were so creepy, and she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to recreate the huge plume of fire that Professor Uchiha had used to drive off the one they’d come across last year.

Mayu was starting to think she’d actually make it home in one piece when the howl sounded from somewhere to her right. It was a loud, primal sound, and a rational corner of her mind supplied a running commentary even as her body broke into a cold sweat.  _Werewolf? No way, they wouldn’t come this close to the school. Must be some other terrifying creature._ She forced herself to freeze in place. If she ran, she’d give her position away. Not to mention she’d definitely be chased. Predators liked it when their prey ran.

Heavy breathing and the sound of creaking branches sounded to her right and she plastered herself against the tree she was standing against. Her whole body was shaking and she had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from panting in fear. Whatever it was, it was huge.

Another branch broke, this time closer to her position, and she was contemplating running for it when another howl sounded from deeper in the forest. She jumped about a foot in the air when the animal that was crashing through the forest close to her returned it and was glad for the hand over her mouth that muffled her scream as the tree at her back vibrated with the force of the sound.

Then a cacophony of noise hit her, breaking branches and groaning trees, along with the _thud thud thud_ of running footsteps. The creature was heading _away_ from her position, and she forced herself to stay where she was for the count of five. Then she gave into her body’s urges and fled. Whatever had distracted the creatures might not keep them away for long - Mayu needed to get back to the castle.

Fear was making a valiant attempt to cloud her mind and she just barely kept it together enough to run in the right direction. _Get away, get away, get away,_ was all she could really manage to think. Branches whipped at her face and tugged at her clothes and hair, but she ignored the stinging pain. Her breaths sounded like sobs to her ears and she promised herself that she would never come back out into the forest without Fugaku again if she lived through this.

She could just make out the lights of the castle in the distance when another howl broke through the night. Mayu stumbled, arms pinwheeling as she attempted to catch her balance. Her foot hit a branch and she soared forward, slamming into a tree before hitting the ground and rolling twice. She blinked, dazed and unable to move for a long few minutes.

She pulled herself up to her hands and knees and winced at the painful twinge in her shoulder. Whatever those things were, they seemed to be gone now, if the way the forest around her slowly began to come back to life was any indication. Then she noticed that the sky was grey and pink instead of black. She hadn’t realized how long that slow trek through the forest had taken her. She had to get back to the castle, and she had to do it now if she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life in detention.

She spun on her heel, still crouched, and froze. Standing three feet from her was a small, round creature with bristling red quills and a tiny, snuffling snout and beady eyes. Mayu was pretty sure it was a Bernese Porcupine, the magical cousin of the muggle porcupine, and that those quills were extremely poisonous.

She licked her lips and locked her muscles, praying that the little animal would decide she wasn’t a threat and move on. Then she heard it. A tiny, mewling sound to her right. Slowly, she turned her head, and almost swore when she saw the nest of baby porcupine-like-creatures. Mayu looked back over at the mom and was completely unsurprised when she rolled back and launched at least a dozen of the sharp little projectiles at her.

Mayu lifted her arm to protect her face and stumbled backward as pain erupted where the quills had stabbed into her arm. She scrambled to her feet and took off in the direction of the castle. Her arm was _burning,_ and she could feel the poison moving into her bloodstream.

She fumbled to tug the quills out from where they were embedded in her flesh, but there were too many, and her movements were clumsy and weak. Her vision started to blur and she was having difficulty figuring out which way was up. Mayu could just make out the shape of the castle through the trees when her legs gave out from under her. She didn’t even feel her body hit the ground, though she could tell by the grass dancing in front of her eyes that she was definitely horizontal.

She thought she heard thunder, which was strange since it wasn’t raining. Was it? Mayu’s last thought before her eyes drifted shut was that Professor Uchiha was going to give her so many detentions for dying.

000

Shikamaru poked half-heartedly at his eggs before looking over at the Hufflepuff table for the fifth time that morning. Still no Mayu. How was he supposed to apologize if he couldn’t even find her?

He pushed his sausage to the side. He should be starving after missing dinner to scrub cauldrons, but he couldn’t muster up an appetite. Guilt was the _worst._

“Don’t worry, Shika, she’ll forgive you,” Ino said and patted him on the shoulder. “She’s crazy enough to be your girlfriend, she’s crazy enough to let your little man-fit go.”

“Don’t call her crazy,” he muttered.

Ino rolled her eyes and flicked her much-shorter ponytail back. “Whatever.”

His head jerked up when he caught a flash of yellow at the door. He frowned when he saw that it was Hinata, and she looked pretty anxious. It wasn’t often she showed up to the Great Hall without Mayu in tow - those two were never very far from each other.

Her gaze roamed the Hufflepuff table and she bit her lip and wrung her hands together. Shikamaru watched as she darted across the room and leaned over to whisper something in Naruto’s ear. The blonde shook his head and the corners of his mouth turned down. He twisted around and asked her something, hands waving in the air.

Hinata shook her head slowly, then glanced up at the head table where the Hufflepuff head of house, Kakashi Hatake, was drinking tea through his ever-present mask. Naruto said something else and Hinata squared her shoulders and nodded before scurrying up towards Professor Hatake.

“What is it? Do you think something happened?” Ino asked. She was watching Hinata climb the platform and lean over to say something to Professor Hatake, who was growing tenser the longer she spoke. He shook his head and patted her on the shoulder, then stood.

Shikamaru knew, somehow, that whatever it was had to do with Mayu. He tried to remember what she’d been saying before he cut her off yesterday. Something about going with her somewhere? And...hadn’t she mentioned the forest? He stiffened and air left him in a rush. She wouldn’t go out there alone, would she? His fork clattered from suddenly numb fingers because, yeah, she probably would.

“Shikamaru, are you alright?”

Before he could reply the sound of clattering hooves echoed from the entrance hall, and a hush fell over the dining students right before an honest-to-god centaur burst into the room. Shikamaru’s gaze was immediately pulled to the small form that he was holding in his arms.

“Mayu,” he choked out, ignoring the sounds of surprise echoing around him as he disentangled himself from the table and took off at a run towards the large centaur. Somehow, Madam Senju made it to him first, Headmaster Sarutobi a close second.

“What happened?” she asked as she took out her wand and started to wave it over Mayu’s limp, pale form.

“She had a run-in with a Bernese Porcupine,” the centaur said and Madam Senju’s lips pressed into a thin line. Shikamaru edged closer, trying to see if Mayu was breathing. She was so _still -_

“Fugaku! I need you!” Madam Senju called and Shikamaru was forced to take a step back when the potions professor hurried to her side. She looked up at the huge centaur, whose face was somber. “Can you carry her up to the infirmary? I hate to ask, but -”

“I can,” he said and she nodded once before spinning towards the door, white robes flaring around her as she took off into a run.

“Clear the way, please,” Headmaster Sarutobi called, voice mild, and the few stragglers who had come in after the centaur’s dramatic entrance scrambled to do as they were told.

Shikamaru watched as the centaur, Professors Uchiha and Hatake, and the Headmaster took off in a dead run down the hall after the mediwitch. Conversation erupted around him and he stood staring, wide-eyed, at where they’d disappeared.

“Stop standing there like an idiot,” Ino snapped and he flinched when she grabbed his sleeve. “Let’s go sit outside the infirmary and wait for news.”

He stumbled after her, peripherally aware that Naruto and Hinata had joined them. “I’m not - why was she in the forest?”

Naruto looked over at him, blue eyes wide and worried, prefect batch gleaming on his robes. “I don’t know. She’s kind of reckless, but that’s a lot even for her,” he admitted. Hinata sniffled but didn’t say anything.

Ino kept her hand on Shikamaru’s arm until they reached the hallway outside the Infirmary, Chouji a reassuring presence at their backs. When they tried the door it was locked, so they all moved to lean against the wall until somebody came out to give them news. They didn’t have to wait long before Professor Uchiha slipped through the door, lips pressed together and moving quickly.

He paused when he saw them standing in the hall. “You should be in class,” he snapped.

The only response was Hinata’s small sob and he sighed and softened minutely. “She’s alive. Tsunade put her in stasis until I can make a potion that will hopefully reverse the effects of the poison.”

Shikamaru’s hand fisted at his side as Naruto said, “Hopefully?” in a small voice that sounded strange coming from the usually cheerful boy.

Professor Uchiha rubbed a hand across his forehead and Shikamaru felt the few bites he’d taken of his breakfast curdle in his stomach. That one motion was the equivalent of somebody else pulling at their hair and wailing.

“It did a lot of damage before Firenze found her. You can go in and sit with her now if you’d like.”

Shikamaru took a step forward to do just that, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He stared up at his potions professor’s solemn expression. “Shikamaru. The potion is a difficult one and requires hours of non-stop brewing. I could use an extra pair of hands if you’re willing.”

Shikamaru looked at the door, then back at Professor Uchiha. His voice was gravely with emotion when he spoke. “Yeah. Of course. Anything you need.”

He wasn’t even surprised by how much he meant it.

It took twelve hours to brew the potion. Professor Uchiha hadn’t been joking when he said it was difficult. Shikamaru had never worked on a potion so delicate and time-consuming before and he realized how lucky they were that a Master Potion Maker was on hand to create it.

He mostly cut and stirred and crushed and made runs to the ingredients cupboard when prompted. Professor Uchiha stood over the three cauldrons they were using to create the potion, face calm and movements sure even after hours of being on his feet.

“Why didn’t we use a bezoar?” Shikamaru thought to ask about five hours in.

“We did. It stopped the progression of the poison, but it couldn’t undo the damage already wrought to her internal organs.”

“Oh.” His voice came out small and he knew that Professor Uchiha was just trying to distract him when he asked him to slice more wormroot. He was thankful, all the same.

Shikamaru was exhausted by the time they exited the Professor’s personal brewing lab. He was pretty sure it was dinnertime from the smells coming from the Great Hall, but he wasn’t tempted to join his fellow students and Professor Uchiha was too intelligent to suggest it.

When he caught his first glimpse of Mayu, laying on the hospital bed in absolute stillness, he felt the urge to cry for the first time since Professor Uchiha had told him off when he was a firstie. Without her usual boundless energy and snarking, she looked small.

“This will work, right?” he asked in a low tone as Madam Senju bent over her to give her the potion.

Professor Uchiha glanced over at him and after a moment of hesitation patted him on the shoulder. He didn’t say anything, though, and Shikamaru had to resist the urge to run from the room. Instead, he pulled a chair up to the bed after Madam Senju moved away and sat down in it. After a moment of hesitation, he took her hand in his. It was cool to the touch and he stood back up and stole a blanket from one of the other beds and put it over her.

Madam Senju just sent him a small smile and when Professor Uchiha sat down on the other side of the bed and took out a stack of essays to grade, neither one of them felt the urge to speak.

 _She’ll wake up. She’s too damn stubborn not to,_ Shikamaru thought, but it sounded more hopeful than sure, even in his head.

000

Mayu was like, eighty percent sure she shouldn’t be alive. Yet here she was, in the Infirmary, staring up at a very familiar crack in the ceiling. It was dark, the area lit by only one lamp across the room. Her whole body felt like one big bruise, and _breathing_ hurt, so she knew she wasn’t dead and in some strange afterlife.

Madam Senju appeared a few minutes later, tugging the ties of her robe shut. “Finally! Took your sweet time waking up, brat.”

Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a bun and Mayu studied her impressive cleavage with interest and a bit of feminine jealousy. Not that Mayu was _small_ , but Tsunade Senju had some pretty spectacular breasts.

“I wonder if Shikamaru would like me better if I had boobs like yours,” she said a little sadly. And, wow, she must have been full of some strong potions because that just popped right out of her mouth.

Madam Senju’s brows climbed her forehead and she paused, wand pulled halfway from her pocket. Then she snorted and started waving it over Mayu, who watched in interest as charts and colors formed in the air above her.

“If the way he’s been practically living by your bedside the past week staring mournfully into the distance means anything, he likes your assets just fine.”

Mayu stared at her. “Shikamaru’s been visiting me? Wait, did you say I’ve been here for a _week?”_

“Yes and yes. I kicked him out at curfew, but I’m sure he’ll be back in the morning before classes, along with your squeaky friend.”

“Squeaky friend? Oh, you mean Hinata?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? They’re all the same after awhile. I’d better send a message to Kakashi and Fugaku - they were both pretty insistent that I should let them know as soon as you woke up from your coma.”

_“Coma?”_

Tsunade waved a hand at her as though she thought she was being overdramatic. Mayu thought, not for the first time, that she could use some work on her bedside manner. Of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to say it out loud. Again.

A few minutes later Professor Hatake strolled through the doors, looking for all the world like he was out for a pleasant walk around the lake. “Ah, Mayu, you look better. Less on the edge of death.”

She knew her generally easy-going head of house well enough to understand what that particular eye-smile meant. Yep, she was is in trouble. “Uh, hey, Professor Hatake. Have you been working out? You’re looking very dapper -”

“Mayu Nomaka.” She squeaked as Fugaku Uchiha swept through the doors, all dark robes and righteous fury. “You _idiot girl,_ what were you thinking, going out into the Forbidden Forest after dark by yourself?”

He stalked across the room and she shrank back into her pillow. Professor Hatake nodded amiably. “I was just about to ask her the same thing.”

“Um, well. Oh! My bag - is it here? You didn’t leave it in the forest, did you?” She sat up, then groaned as her muscles protested and flopped back against the pillows.

“Ow.” She stuck out her lower lip and Fugaku sighed and put two fingers to his forehead.

“I’m assuming your bag has something to do with why you were out there?”

“Yes! Oh, it’s been a week, right? That means yesterday was your birthday. I missed it.”

Professor Uchiha stared at her and she would recognize his _what have I done to deserve this divine punishment_ expression anywhere. Professor Hatake had grabbed something from the end of the bed and was now rifling through it. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was her bag.

“There’s a wooden box, but be careful! What’s inside is very delicate.”

“Here,” Madam Senju said and Mayu wrinkled her nose when a foul-smelling potion was shoved under it.

“Do I have to?” Her eyes widened when the mediwitch leveled her with a terrifying glare. “You guys are being so mean to me. I’m ill! I just woke up from a coma, you know.”

Madam Senju put the potion to her lips instead of answering and Mayu obediently drank it down, though she didn’t try to stop the resulting gag. “Shut up and let the potion do its work. Your body is mostly healed, it just needs a little jump start. This will help with the pain and fatigue you’re feeling right now. By tomorrow morning you’ll be ready to go down and face all your friends and explain to them why you thought it’d be a good idea to almost get yourself killed.”

Mayu was pretty sure she lost all the color in her face. “T-tomorrow? Don’t you think that’s a little soon? I was in a coma!”

“Barely,” Madam Senju scoffed. “Your body just needed to keep its workload to a minimum while the potion Fugaku made did its work.”

Mayu was cut off from further protests when Professor Uchiha spoke. He was holding the cloth that Mayu had wrapped around the Fila leaves in his hand and staring down at the revealed treasure with an unreadable expression. Mayu struggled into a seated position and had to admit that she was already feeling better. Not that she’d ever tell Madam Senju that.

“Oh, good! They’re still glowing. Um. Happy Birthday, Professor. Sorry, it’s late.”

“Mayu,” his voice was gruff and she frowned at the way his eyebrow was ticking. “Are you saying that you went out into the Forbidden Forest, alone, to...get me a birthday present?”

“Yep! Do you like it? You don’t seem like you like it. Did I harvest them wrong? It’s okay! I can show you where they’re growing during the next full moon and we can -”

“Detention. Three weeks’ worth.”

Mayu snapped her mouth shut as Fugaku carefully folded the cloth back over the leaves and placed them reverently in the box that Professor Hatake was still holding. The Head of her House’s shoulders were shaking in what Mayu was fairly certain was suppressed laughter, and Madam Senju looked like she wanted to join him.

“Um.”

“Next time, take me with you.” He snatched the box from Professor Hatake’s hand, then spun and strode towards the door.

Mayu’s shoulders slumped at his reaction. She supposed her breaking the rules probably took away from the cool factor of her present. She sniffled and he paused at the door.

“Thank you for the present,” he said and before she could reply he’d exited the room just as dramatically as he’d entered it.

“Well,” Professor Hatake said. “I suppose I can let Fugaku deal with your punishment. I’m glad you’re okay, Mayu. Let’s try to stay alive for your last few years at Hogwarts, hmm?”

He patted her shoulder before slouching his way out of the Infirmary. Madam Senju sighed and handed Mayu a standard sleep potion.

“Men. This is why I never married,” she muttered.

000

“Come on, Shikamaru, you can eat breakfast and then we’ll go visit Mayu, alright?

Shikamaru stopped trying to fight the inevitable and let Chouji drag him away from the stairs that would take him to the infirmary. He recognized that stubborn expression - he’d carry Shikamaru to breakfast if he had to.

Ino and Chouji boxed him in between them and he started shoveling food into his mouth. If he hurried, he’d have half an hour with Mayu before he had to get to Transfiguration.

The past week had been hellish as they all waited for Mayu to wake up. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the adults were starting to worry that she never would. The dead giveaway was that Madam Senju had started being cheerful about it. The woman was never that nice about anything.

His hand tightened on his fork and he blinked rapidly when his eyes grew wet. If Mayu didn’t wake up, then the last memory he had of her was him being a jerk and making her cry _._

The food he’d just swallowed felt heavy in his stomach and his appetite disappeared. He set his fork down with a clatter and stood.

“I’m done,” he said in a flat tone and ignored Ino’s protests as he made his way out of the Great Hall, keeping his gaze firmly away from the Hufflepuff table. It just made it worse every time he looked at it and she wasn’t there, rolling her eyes at something or arguing with Naruto.

He sped up as he neared the stairs, anxious to see Mayu before he was forced to go attend his classes. He was halfway up the staircase when he heard her voice.

“Ugh, Kiba, I’m _fine -”_

“You just woke up from a coma! How is that fine?”

“Gryffindors are so dramatic -”

“A coma is pretty dramatic, Mayu!”

Shikamaru froze, one foot hovering above the step, his hand resting on the railing. His heartbeat picked up and he forced himself to breathe as he caught sight of her walking slowly down the stairs towards him, Kiba Inuzuka holding her arm gently.

“Mayu?”

Her head turned from where she’d been looking at her friend and took him in with wide eyes. “Sh-Shikamaru? What are you -”

He dashed up the stairs and pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank god, you’re awake. You’re _awake.”_

“Well, I think Shikamaru has it from here. Madam Senju said she needs to take it slow, so uh...” Shikamaru ignored Kiba’s rambling as he started inching around them and down the stairs and shoved his nose into Mayu’s neck, which was level with his face, since she was standing on the step above him.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I made you cry and that I wasn’t there with you in the forest.” His voice sounded wet, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be ashamed of his reaction.

Mayu’s arms came around him and she patted his back a little awkwardly. “It - hey, it’s okay. I know that I can be a bit much -”

“No,” he said and pulled back so he could look at her face. He wiped the moisture from his eyes and met her gaze levelly. Shit, he’d forgotten how pretty her eyes were - how pretty _she_ was. Even with her too-pale skin and the bags under her eyes and hair that needed washing she was still the prettiest girl he’d ever seen.

“It wasn’t anything to do with you. I just...I guess I was freaked out about...” he trailed off as his cheeks warmed, but he took a deep breath and pressed forward. He’d been thinking about what he’d say if he got the chance all week and there was no way he was backing out now that she was in front of him.

“About?” she prompted, and her expression was so hopeful that he reached out and grabbed her hand.

“About how much I like you. I always thought it was a bad thing, to care about someone the way I care about you.”

“Do you still think that?” Her voice was low and wary and he hated that he was the one that made her sound that way.

“No. You...you’re amazing, and I was an idiot for pushing you away. I know I was a jerk, but, if I could just have another chance -”

Mayu leaped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, and the next few seconds were filled with swooping terror as he scrambled at the railing in an attempt to keep them from falling down the stairs. He finally grabbed hold of it and spun them around so that his back hit the wall and her feet slipped down to join his on the step.

“Sorry,” she said as he struggled to pull air back into his lungs.

When she made as though to pull away, he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her back against him. She was soft and warm and smelled like pepper up potion and the horrible tension that had taken hold of him that week finally released.

“It’s fine,” he said after a moment. Then, “You’re fine.”

“I am,” she agreed.

Eventually, they were forced to head back down the stairs. Mayu was clinging to his arm and chattering up at him, reciting the full story of what, exactly, had happened in the forest, and it almost felt like the past two weeks had never happened. He wondered idly how she’d become such an integral part of his life in just three months’ time.

Then she started talking about huge howling beasts and what sounded like a terrifying dash through the forest, and he was too busy choking on air to follow the line of thought.

“Shikamaru! Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Before he could gather himself enough to tell her exactly what he thought of her idea to go to the Forbidden Forest _alone,_ they were being mauled by sobbing Hufflepuffs.

As Naruto and Hinata wrapped themselves around Mayu like large, yellow-clad koalas, Shikamaru was forced to accept that the calm, lazy existence he’d lived before was now over. The worst part of it all was that he couldn’t even bring himself to care.

000

Shikamaru leaned against the wall, watching the chattering Hufflepuffs as they slowly filtered out into the hallway. He covered a yawn as he waited for _his_ Hufflepuff to appear so he could walk her to breakfast.

Not that she was technically his anything, really. They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk since she woke up three days ago. Mayu was busy trying to catch up with homework and reassure her friends that she wasn’t dead, along with the detentions she was now serving every night with the Head of Slytherin. Shikamaru thought it was a little cold to give her detention for what was basically a misguided attempt to show the man how much she cared, but then Fugaku Uchiha was a cold man.

Still, he remembered how often the Professor had been in the room when Shikamaru went to visit Mayu, and how determined he’d looked while putting together that potion. If Shikamaru had to guess, he’d bet that the detention was Uchiha’s way of keeping her close to him while he worked through her near-death experience.

“Professor Hatake only gave me _three days_ to catch up on my work. I know this is his form of punishment, though officially he let Professor Uchiha deal with it. He’s so - Shikamaru, hi!”

He straightened as Mayu and Hinata appeared from behind the barrels in front of the Hufflepuff common room door, though he’d heard her coming well before he could see her. She was staring up at him with an expression that was similar to the way she stared at their potions professor, and he had to tamp down on the urge to puff out his chest.

“Hey, Mayu. Can I walk you to breakfast?”

Mayu’s lips widened into a pleased smile. “Um. Sure. Yeah, yes, that’d be. I mean, if you don’t mind Hinata walking with us?”

“Not at all.” He quirked a lip up at the other girl, who had thawed considerably towards him during Mayu’s stay in the hospital. He thought it might have had something to do with how pitiful he’d looked that whole week. At least that was Ino’s theory and he was self-aware enough to admit she was probably right.

“Oh, actually. I forgot something in our dorm,” Hinata said and Mayu sent her a suspicious look when the words came out squeaky.

“Can’t you just get it later?”

“No. I - it’s girl stuff!” Hinata turned bright red and Shikamaru was pretty sure she hadn’t meant to say that so loud. She then turned around and dashed back behind the barrels.

Mayu stared in the direction she’d run off to. “Sometimes she’s so weird.”

Shikamaru couldn’t stop his smile at those words. “So. Breakfast?” he prompted.

She bit her lip and slid her arm through his, then smiled up at him. “Yeah, okay.”

Shikamaru pushed his open robes back so he could shove his free hand in his pants pocket and listened as she complained about the boring essay she was being forced to write during her detentions that listed and described the twenty most dangerous creatures that lived in the Forbidden Forest, along with how to best defeat each one.

“Mayu.” She stopped talking and looked at him expectantly. They’d just turned a corner and he tugged her to a stop, waiting until a few Ravenclaws had passed before continuing. “I was wondering if you’d...want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend.”

She blinked rapidly, and her tongue darted out to wet her lips before she said, cautiously, “you mean, as your date?”

Shikamaru inwardly cursed the way his cheeks heated and nodded. “Yeah. Well, I was thinking more along the lines of as my girlfriend, but -”

Mayu put her hands on his cheeks and stood up on her toes so that she could press her lips to his. His eyes widened before fluttering shut without his permission and his hands moved to settle on her hips. And mystery solved, her lips _were_ just as soft as they looked. She pulled away when somebody whistled at the end of the hallway and he stared down at her flushed face and bright eyes.

“Yes. To both.” Her voice came out breathy and low and it took him another five seconds to remember what question she was even answering.

Shikamaru wouldn’t have been able to stop the probably-dopey smile that spread across his face if he tried (not that he did) and her answering grin made him want to kiss her again. He licked his lips instead of giving in, aware of the curious eyes that were focused on them.

“Alright. Well.” He cleared his throat. “Can I sit with you at breakfast?”

Mayu ignored the whispers around them and pressed her lips to his cheek. “Alright. I have some ideas for today's potion, anyway.”

Later that day, when he stopped by to visit her in the infirmary after she had a ‘bit of a miscalculation’ in her Transfiguration class, he couldn’t even bring himself to bemoan his new lot in life. Especially when she smiled up at him and let him hold her hand while Madam Senju attempted to turn what was now a large block of cheese back into a foot.

Chouji had been right. Some things really are worth the trouble.


End file.
